


mon papillon

by reybencyera



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, Rey Needs A Hug, Soft Ben Solo, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, aka my four semesters of high school french were good for something actually??, based off a twitter prompt, i believe in french teacher rey supremacy, so does ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25123498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reybencyera/pseuds/reybencyera
Summary: "Do you know what the French call soulmate marks?L'offrande de l'âme. It means 'the offering of the soul'. I like that. I like how it makes it seem more like a personal decision than some sort of cosmic lottery."✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*based off the following prompt by @stxrsolo on twitter:"soulmate au where ben and rey have matching butterflies on the back of their necks. neither of them know until either:a. rey wears a bunb. ben’s hair is cut a lil bit too short"
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 29
Kudos: 205





	mon papillon

**Author's Note:**

> baby's first modern au *sniffs*. something about this prompt really interested me, so i hope i've been able to do it justice! french translations will be in the notes at the bottom if you don't wanna have to whip out google translate lol.

Most of the time, Rey was neutral about the idea of soulmates. Some people vehemently opposed them, making an effort to be with anyone _but_ their so-called perfect match. Others were on the opposite end of the spectrum, swearing celibacy until they found the person that happened to share their mark. None of it much interested her. Her philosophy was that whatever happened, happened, and there was little she could do to change that. Either she would find her soulmate or she wouldn’t; neither thought filled her with any particular feeling of dread.

What _did_ fascinate her were the expressions used in different languages to describe the marks. Rey had made it a hobby to learn these phrases, seeking out those that were unusual or especially poetic. 

She had something of a penchant for learning languages, acquiring a few during high school and near-fluency in half a dozen more throughout college. She’d known for a while that she one day wanted to foster a love of language in the minds of children, but it wasn’t until she took up French that she knew which she wished to teach. 

Her students were often as eager as she was to learn more about the mysteries of soulmate marks, given the allure of amorous fantasies concerning them that were often featured in romcoms and dramas. She now felt obligated, in her third year of attempting to wrangle fifteen-year-olds into learning the intricacies of _la langue française,_ to make a whole unit about soulmates- specifically their markings- and their place in French and global culture. Although it took a bit of time out of her traditional lesson plan, it was worth it to see the sparks of genuine interest on the faces of her students.

The class was excited to hear about her own mark (she informed them that the little image’s description could be translated to _le papillon bleu)_ and were entranced as she played a slideshow of pictures of her friends’. Rose had _une lune d'or;_ Jannah, _une fleur jaune;_ her married friends Poe and Finn had matching _cygnes._ The students had a grand time oohing and ahhing over the last image of the couple’s clasped hands which both bore the mark, and Rey found that the way Finn and Poe blushed when she described the way the class had reacted made the whole project worthwhile.

She told her friends of one of her student’s expressions whilst watching her little presentation.

“You just have to know her to understand. This whole semester, she’s been so uninterested in everything I’ve taught them. She seems like- well, to put it frankly, it seems like there’s more going on at home than she’s willing to tell. I’ve had the counselor try to arrange some sort of home visit already and… but I’m getting off track. She always seems like she’s beyond all of this- or, like she has things much more serious to worry about, which I get- but when I told the class we were going to be discussing marks her whole face lit up. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

“That’s really sweet, Rey,” Jannah replied with a genuine grin. 

“Yeah, it is.”

Rey glanced over the table to where Ben was sitting and gave him a small smile. He’d only started hanging out with the group a few weeks ago, although they all distantly knew him as Poe’s coworker. He’d been relatively silent during their group’s biweekly “hangs” (as Finn so eloquently described them), but she found him friendly enough. 

_He’s cute, too,_ she observed to herself idly, eyes roving over him as he turned away. _Like some sort of buff nerd._

He always had a pair of glasses perched on his nose, his big puppyish eyes peering through them. His collection of button-up shirts constantly strained over the bulk of his chest- and sometimes whenever she’d drunk one too many on a Saturday night, she fantasized about setting those poor buttons free. 

She would have asked if he wanted to contribute a picture of his own mark for her lesson but hadn’t wanted to seem too forward. She barely knew the guy, after all. Still, she found herself intrigued by what his mark was. If she were to think along the lines of the popular rumor that the marks reflected some part of the individual’s personality, she would guess that he probably had something quiet and intelligent, with an undercurrent of strength; a panther, perhaps.

_Maybe I'll talk to him about it sometime_ , she thought to herself as she took a taxi back to her apartment. Although the idea of doing so still made her cheeks flush, for whatever stupid reason. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

A couple weeks later and she was having one of her absolute worst days on the job. Trying to teach a bunch of teenagers French verb conjugations was always a struggle, but for some reason not a single one of them had been able to grasp the concept today. On top of that, the progress she’d made with the girl she’d spoken to the group about was gone; she’d become sullener than ever. 

Rey knew that a significant amount of her concern about this girl had to do with how much of herself she saw in her. Coming from a troubled home, smart but with no motivation to try in school, angry at the world. Rey’d been lucky in that she had a teacher who had pushed her to do her best and supported her as she went through the process of applying for college and scholarships. She hoped that she could be to this girl even a fraction of what Maz was to her. So far, she felt as though she was failing. 

The icing on the metaphorical cake was that Rey had forgotten her lunch at home. After living so many years not knowing when she would next be able to eat, the thought of missing even one meal gave her bouts of anxiety. She put her head down on her desk, knowing that riding the bus to go buy something would take way too much time.

_God, I need a car._

Picking up her cell from where she had laid it before the first bell had rung that morning, she shot off a quick text in her friends’ group chat asking if anyone had time to bring her something. To her surprise, not a minute later Ben fired back a simple _Yes._

She got another ping and found a text from him. He inquired as to what she wanted and said he was on his way as they spoke. 

She answered him and pulled out a hair tie, attempting to pull her frizz into something bearing resemblance to a flattering messy bun. Rey didn’t really know what it was about him that made her want to feel more… _put together,_ but she was willing to indulge the urge for the time being. While she waited, she started erasing what was left on her marker board from the past few classes, writing the day’s agenda down again in slightly less sloppy handwriting. 

When she turned around, she saw Ben standing at the entranceway of her classroom, his face a white sheet- even more so than usual (she was half convinced the man was a vampire.) 

“Hey, Ben!” She grinned at him. “How long have you been standing there?”

“O-Oh… not long.” His eyes widened when she walked closer and she gave him a confused look. 

“Well… thank you for this. I was having an absolutely awful day and this definitely helps.” She grabbed the bag from his hands and started unloading his haul, breathing in the scent of her favorite pasta from the little Italian place downtown, mouth practically watering. 

Ben seemed to have recovered from his initial shock somewhat, “It was no problem. What’s been so bad about today?”

She sat her food down, “Uh, well. There’s this student of mine- a sophomore, the girl I was telling you guys about- I thought she was improving but the past couple of days have been rough.”  
  


She paused but Ben gestured for her to go on. “This morning the counselor told me that they aren’t able to do anything about her living situation and-” tears threatened to leak from her eyes but she held them in, “-it’s just that I was a kid exactly like her, and I was lucky because there was always someone in my life who I felt was looking out for me, even though my foster dad sucked. I’m worried that if I can’t get through to her, no one else will be able to. Or even try.”

“Rey,” Ben obviously wanted to do something with his hands and they simply hovered for a moment. Eventually, he brought one up to wipe a lone tear from her face. “You _are_ helping her. Even if you don’t feel like it. At least she knows that there’s someone in her corner. Some kids aren’t so lucky. And from what I can tell, you’re great at your job. Every time you talk about it you seem so genuinely ecstatic. Just give this girl some time, and I’m sure she’ll come around.”

“Thanks, Ben,” her voice slightly broken. “It means a lot that you’d say that.”

  
  
“Anytime.”

She let out a steadying exhale then turned back around to finish her work. That seemed to flick some kind of switch for Ben.

He made to back out the doorway and was almost out in the hall when Rey asked, “Are you sure you can’t stay? It would be nice to have some company while I eat.”

“No, I really need to get back to work,” his eyes were darting around like those of a cornered animal, looking at everything but her. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sure,” she said cheerily. “Thank you, again. For everything.”

He was already out the door. She sighed and went back to her food, wondering what had gotten into him. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Back in his car, Ben attempted to steady his breathing. 

_Rey has the same mark as I do. Rey and I have the same mark._

No matter how many variations of that he told himself, he still couldn’t believe what he had seen. Rey was so disgustingly out of his league that the very idea of them being one another’s cosmically assigned perfect match was _absurd_. 

It’s not that he hadn’t thought about it before. Rey’s sunny disposition, the floral dresses she always seemed to be wearing, how her delicate lips shaped themselves around the words of her second (or third, or sixth) language, the way her hazel irises sparkled when she talked about her students… anyone with eyes could surely see the appeal. 

It must have just been a trick of the light, his eyes deceiving him. Maybe his years of loneliness had finally gotten to him and his mind was showing him what he wanted to see. 

But _no,_ he hadn’t imagined the small blue butterfly that rested on the back of Rey’s slender neck. Its wings had stretched out over her shifting muscles as she lifted her chin up to focus on writing something he didn’t understand on a board in front of her. 

He reached up and touched his own mark, pulling his phone out with his other hand and shooting a quick message to his mother informing her that he would be taking the rest of the day off. She could be mad with him if she wished, he needed time to process all of this. 

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The next day, Rey took the bus to the bar where her friends were meeting. Looking down at her phone, she made her way to their normal table. 

“Sorry I’m late, guys, the bus was delayed and-”

She looked up across the table and her breath caught in her throat. Ben’s hair was short. At least, a lot shorter than she was used to seeing it. It flattered him, she thought. The tips of his ears peeked through the new cut- which she was decidedly not accustomed to- and something about that simple detail was so endearing that her heart ached. 

She’d been staring too long. She knew it, Ben knew it, maybe her friends hadn’t noticed (as they were all looking down at their phones in a stereotypically millennial fashion) but they would soon. 

She ducked her head and felt her face heat up. “Nice haircut, Ben.”

“Thanks.”

For the next couple of hours Rey found her eyes drawn to Ben more often than not. He had apparently left his glasses at home for the day, a very unusual occurrence for him, and the unobstructed view of his face occasionally made her speech stutter. 

She has always thought him nice looking, but tonight there was something different about him, although she couldn’t identify what precisely. His eyes flitted to hers periodically, and it was like there was some silent resolution behind them that made her shiver if she considered it for too long. 

About halfway through the night, Ben said that he needed to grab his phone from his car. 

_Of course the old man would leave his phone outside,_ she thought and snickered silently. It was a running joke among her friends that Ben, the oldest of all of them, was as technologically inept as someone twice his age. 

That was before she caught sight of something that stole her breath. When he turned on them to head to the door, Rey _swore_ she saw a blue shape on the back of his neck- in the precise place that hers was. 

She watched him walk out, her breathing returned to her but shallow. 

Someone made a quick jab at her side with their elbow. 

“Ow!” she yelped. “What was that for?”

Rose looked up at her with a mischievous smirk. “You’ve been staring at Ben all night. Why you two won’t get over your shyness and go out is beyond me. You’re literally perfect for each other.”

_If only she knew_ , Rey thought. 

“I don’t- I don’t really think he likes me- like _that_.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Poe chimed in. “Both of you are so oblivious, you have no idea how frustrating it is.”

“Oh, shut up,” she said, only half-joking, as she noticed Ben walking back to the table. 

When their eyes met, she _knew._ Suddenly, she remembered their situation yesterday. Her with her hair up, flashing her mark to whoever wished to see it. Her back turned to the doorway, right where Ben had planted himself. Everything made sense now: how flustered he’d been, his hasty exit, why Poe had texted her and asked if she knew why Ben hadn’t come back to work. He’d known and hadn’t told her.

Her mouth hung open slightly, unaware of how her friends were silently amused by the way the pair’s eyes lingered on each other. 

She finally looked away, and she just knew that the apples of her cheeks were as red as the fruit itself.

The night wore on, and it seemed like Ben was attempting to communicate something to her through his expressions. His eyes darted toward the door, as if to say _wanna get out of here?_ She shook her head almost imperceptibly, mouthing _later_ in his general direction.

Rose left first, saying that she had to get up early the next morning. Apparently, she was going out with a new guy named… Arthur? Armando? Arlo? (Well, Rey was pretty sure his last name was Hux, at least. Odd name.) He was taking her out for brunch. 

Jannah left not long after, never one to stay out extremely late anyway, even on a weekend.

Finn and Poe stayed for a bit longer, and there was a definite tension in the air. Rey had deduced that her friends hadn’t figured out the whole truth, but they definitely knew _something_ was going on. The couple ended up leaving not twenty minutes after Jannah’s departure, giving a flimsy excuse before they were out the door. 

Leaving Ben and Rey alone. Together.

Ben looked up at her, his amber eyes peeking through his long eyelashes, and slowly extended his hand. Hesitating for a moment, she stretched hers out as well, allowing him to brush his thumb over her fingers. 

Neither of them seemed quite sure how to proceed. They apparently both came to a conclusion at the same time, however, and said in unison:

“So, Ben-”

“Rey, I’m-”

It at least worked to break the ice that had formed between them. They laughed and Ben’s hand moved to fully grasp hers. 

“This… is insane, right?” she asked, her giggles dying down. 

“Completely,” he answered, “But I think I’m okay with that.”

“Would you- would you mind driving me to the school?”

He blinked in confusion for a second before answering, “Yeah, of course. Why?”

“There’s just something that I need to pick up.”

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

After they paid their checks, they hopped into Ben’s car and headed toward the schoo where Rey taught. While they drove, heavy rain began to fall outside. A combination of that steady rythym, the cozy leather of Ben’s heated seats, the soft sounds of classical music that played quietly from the radio, and the knowledge that her literal soulmate was sitting beside her resulted in Rey drifting off for a few minutes before they reached their destination. 

When they arrived, Ben halted for a moment before laying his hand down gently on Rey’s shoulder. 

“We’re here, sweetheart.”

She slowly awoke, yawning quietly as she rubbed her eyes, and Ben marveled for a moment that this beautiful, soft creature was intended for _him._

The rain was still pouring, yet Rey pulled out her keys and began to open the door of the car. 

“Wait,” Ben interjected, “I’ve got another jacket in the backseat- you could take it?”

She smiled shyly up at him, containing another yawn, and responded with a simple, “Sure.”

After she had pulled it on over her dress, sucking in a breath at how much of her legs it covered, she opened the door and jogged to the school entrance. Ben followed behind her at a similar pace. 

Once they both got under a small awning placed over the door, they laughed at their soaked heads of hair. Rey unlocked the door and they moved to go inside. 

When they reached her class, Ben took a seat in her padded swivel chair as she dug through her desk drawers. She snorted at how his long legs spread out in front of him. 

He looked down at her and asked, “What are you looking for?”

“Just- give me one minute and I’ll show you... if I can find it- ah, here it is!”

She straightened up and he observed the loop of elastic that hung from her finger. 

“A… ponytail holder?”

She grinned down at him pseudo-maliciously and replied, “Not just any ponytail holder. _The_ ponytail holder.”

He seemed to realize what she meant and laughed, leaning on her desk with his head in his hands. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yesterday. I was just caught off guard. I should have handled it instead of running.”

“I get it. I can’t say that my reaction would have been any better.”

They fell silent, examining each other for a few impossibly long minutes under the silvery moonlight that filtered through the windows. Ben got up from the chair and moved closer to her. To give herself something else to focus on, she nervously chirped out, “Rose is so gonna rub my nose in this. She’s been claiming we’re "literally perfect for each other" for weeks now.”

“Poe has too,” he shook his head, “I guess they were right.”

“So… do you really believe in all this stuff? That just because we have the same little picture on our bodies, we’re the only people we could ever be truly happy with.”

“I’m romantic to a fault, so yes. Do you not?” he clicked his tongue teasingly, “I expected more from a teacher of a Romance language.”

“Oh please,” she rolled her eyes up at him. Somehow, they had been inching closer to each other without her knowledge. 

“Filling the youths’ heads with cynical stories of imperfect soulmates and tragic love stories.”

“You know _Romeo and Juliet_ is a tragic love story, right? Are you going to take it up with the junior English teacher down the hall?”

“I’ll excuse it. English is for the dreary and skeptical, French is for the optimists.”

Rey laughed at that, knowing at least five books that could prove him wrong but deciding to let him have his fun.

“Do you know what the French call soulmate marks? _L'offrande de l'âme._ It means 'the offering of the soul'. I like that. I like how it makes it seem more like a personal decision than some sort of cosmic lottery. I’m not sure how much I trust this whole system, but… I do really like you, Ben. As more than a friend. I think I have since the first time Poe introduced us.”

“I have so much I want to tell you, and so few words to do it,” he said, very obviously trying to contain his emotion at what she’d said and sidling further up to her. His hand brushed over her arm. “For now just know that this is me, offering my soul to you. Because I want to- because since the moment I first saw you I’ve imagined what it would be like, to be with you like this. Not just because the fates have decided that we’re meant to be together.”

He moved yet another inch closer to her, nose brushing against her own as he leaned down. He hung back, seemingly unsure if his intentions matched hers. She surged up onto her tiptoes to meet him halfway.

The second their lips collided, Rey felt _something_ fall into place. Whether it was within their souls or the universe at large didn’t seem to matter at the moment; they were one. Ben’s soft mouth slanted against her own and somehow she knew that being utterly engulfed by his arms was the most at home she would ever feel. She smiled against her soulmate’s lips and brought one of her hands to the back of his neck to rub at the spot where his body matched hers exactly.

  
She thought, with an amused huff against Ben’s mouth, _My students will be thrilled._

**Author's Note:**

> french translations:
> 
>  _la langue française_ : the French language  
>  _le papillon bleu_ : the blue butterfly  
>  _une lune d'or_ : a gold moon  
>  _une fleur jaune_ : a yellow flower  
>  _cygnes_ : swans
> 
> as always, thank you SO much for reading, lovely people of the internet <3


End file.
